Addressing deficiencies in the current information system now while the Government is reforming the resource management system, the science system, water services and the Environmental Reporting Act will help ensure the success of those policies. Environmental information is also critical to the effectiveness of actions to address natural hazards and climate adaptation.

He puts forward the case for investment in a federated environmental information system for New Zealand. “Given the way in which environmental data are collected and how organisations interact in New Zealand’s environmental data ecosystem, a federated data system presents the best way to organise environmental data. It could address many of the existing shortcomings in the way environmental information is currently gathered and used.”

His letter was accompanied by a note discussing the issue of the quality of New Zealand’s environmental data and the information base that it supports. The note provides background on current data infrastructure, the shortcomings of our current environmental information system, and discusses the steps needed to establish a federated data system to manage environmental information.

The note outlines the elements required for a well-functioning data ecosystem – it is reliable, scalable and maintainable. It provides an overview of the IDI New Zealand’s Integrated Data Infrastructure used for socio-economic information.

While the IDI is a useful concept as a starting point for an integrated environmental information system, it is not the perfect model. Environmental data poses additional challenges that might not be present in the data integrated in the IDI. He outlines some initial steps to lay the foundations of a federated environmental information system.

Read the letter here and the note here.